March Numbers

Solid month.  I'll take it.  Next month going to try and shoot for 250 miles running and 400 biking, just keep slowly increasing it.

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Red Dirt Fun.

Solid week.

This week was a run focused week with my original goal to be to jump my mileage over 70 for the first time this year but with the Behind the Rocks 50k at the end of the week it did not quite work out that way.  As the week went on I kind of started running a little less in order not to be too tired for the race on Saturday.  I figured since this is my first ultra of the year I wanted to not go in wasted by volume to badly so I cut my planned 10 miler the day before the race and went MTB in Moab instead getting in over a my head a little which was really fun even though I did endo over the handle bars and sprained both of my wrists, good thing I was wearing a pack on Saturday and not using hand bottles.  Anyways here is the break down for this week.  Nice mileage and vertical.

MTB in Moab on Friday-- really need to plan a trip next year where the whole focus of the week is just riding.

Saturday was the longest run I have done year to date.  Behind the Rocks 50K.  Not going to get into a full race report mostly because I am unmotivated to type it all out tonight but basically it went great until about mile 27 when the heat became to much for me, 85 degrees and being in direct sunlight just killed me.  Started puking and quit sweating which is never a good sign so I just walked it in dumping water from one of my bottles over my head the whole time, still ended with a 6:04 which I am ok with.  Now I just need to find another 50K for April.  I think doing one of these a month the next few months will really help the build up to Leadman.

Bike Focused Week

Back to what I would consider a "normal" volume type of week that this Leadman challenge is going to require, pretty happy about that even though I am a little tired this Monday morning. 

Per my last post I stated that I am taking James advice to try and have a little bit of focus each week within a 4 week cycle, those being biking, running, balance, and recovery.  Last week was a bike focus week for me in which I hit my highest weekly biking mileage so far this year, 122.7 miles.  I will take it.  Yesterday I hit the dirt trails of the Dirty Bizmark loop on the bike during my long ride and was able to ride everything that I could not at the beginning of the year, another big win.  Really enjoying seeing such large jumps in improvement with my cycling, I never get to see that in my running anymore it seems.

Anyways here are the number for this week (click to enlarge).

 

The focus for this week will be running.  Not sure what mileage I will shoot for but will just roll with what the week gives me and how I am feeling. I really do not plan my weeks as much anymore and just do my training based on how I am feeling that day, I am trying to listen to my body so I don't bury myself too bad.  I am heading to Moab on Friday morning to run the Behind the Rocks 50K on Saturday as a long training run so at least 31 miles will come there, should be a solid week and I   should also have some photos to share next week.

Have a great week everyone!

Back to Forward Progress

Now we are back on track, knock on wood.  Second week in a row of hitting ~15 total hours and the stupid sinus infection is now gone, thank God I am over it. 

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Last week I stated that I was pondering on how to put the plan together.  Up to this point I have been trying to balance it as much as I can which may not be the best the best route. 

James Walsh had the suggestion of following this format:
1. Bike focus week
2. Run focus week
3. Balance focus week
4. Recovery focus week

I like the sound of it.  So I am starting with a bike focus week this week since I am heading out to Moab next week to do a 50K run.  I will give this a shot over the next 4 weeks and see how it goes.  Some of the focus may change week to week or I may change up the order a little due to races that I am already signed up for but it should be a fun experiment. 

Until next week.....

That's more like it.

Starting to get back to what I think should be a normal week of 15 hours.  After being sick in February then taking a few weeks to build back up so I didn't run the risk of getting sick again which I did this week anyways.  Started getting a running nose on Tuesday and now I sit here on Sunday with a full blown head cold.  At least this one is only in my sinuses and did not come with the body aches that the last one did.  I feel like I lost quite a bit of fitness for this week was a little bit of a struggle and the ride yesterday up in Coal Creek Canyon was more challenging on the hills than I remember, is that lost of fitness or just due to this head cold?  Good thing there is still lots time to get after it and keep building up volume.

Been really pondering how to move forward with the training plan and trying to fit everything in so that it increases my fitness in both sports and not just bury myself under a mound of fatigue.   How much running? Biking? Lifting?  That is the challenge of Leadman I guess.  Been pondering hiring a coach but not sure if I can spend the $.  Food for thought I guess.

Numbers for this week. (click on the photo to enlarge it)

Enjoy the weather out there this week as this white crap melts and turns everything to mud.  I am ready for some dry trails to ride.

Month of Sickness- Feb's Numbers

What a shitty month.  My total hours were more than half of what I did in January, 28 hours verses 72 hours which is why it has been so quite on here, nothing to report.  As you can see from the chart below I took off 9 days off this month, all due to being sick the first 2 weeks of the month with the flu.  Half of those days I had to call into work also.  Of course when I was sick is when the weather was in the 50-70 degree range and when I started getting back to training the snow started to fly.  Go figure.  Just chalking this month up to what it is and moving on.

So where do I go from here?  Well hopefully the snow melts off and days go back to being warmer so I can get out on the bike outside again, but with that said I just need to get back into the groove of training 2x a day like I was in January and back to doing long runs and rides with some weights thrown in.  Goal for the month is to get back around 60 hours. 

Guess I better quit whining on here and go meet Charles for a 3-4 hour trail slog though the snow to kick the month off right.

Until next time.